Red Bull chief designer Adrian Newey has praised the Honda partnership claiming there is a “trust” that didn’t exist with Renault.
The Japanese manufacturer can boast something only Mercedes can and that is a trouble-free start to 2019, while both Ferrari and Renault have seen power unit problems.
On the performance side, the situation is a little different, but at this early stage, Newey admits the decision to change suppliers has been fully vindicated.
“Honda is really a breath of fresh air,” Newey told Sky F1’s Natalie Pinkham on her In The Pink Podcast.
“They are great people to work with, very straight forward, very well organised.
“It’s actually motivated the whole team having this new relationship with them. They always deliver what they say. No complaints at all there.
“They’re not quite at Mercedes or Ferrari level yet, but I have every confidence that they will get there quite quickly. They just instil that confidence.”
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In fact, such has been the lack of problems caused by Honda, Red Bull has had to own up to their own shortcomings to explain the gap to the front.
“On the chassis side, I’ll be brutally honest we haven’t got the car as good as we’d like it to be at the moment. We just need to get on and do our bit,” Newey noted.
“I think that’s the nice relationship that we have with Honda that we trust each other to just get on and do our bits and not start flinging mud at each other.
“Culturally, absolutely they are very different but I think as long as you respect that and understand it then it’s absolutely fine.”